Lagos

Every Day Is for the Thief Teju Cole Random House: 176 pp., $23 -- Imagine a patient, observant and precise writer like the late W.G. Sebald reborn as a Nigerian exile, returning to and then wandering about that country's teeming and chaotic capital, Lagos. That, in broad strokes, is the voice of the narrator of Teju Cole's fine novel, "Every Day Is for the Thief. " "The air in the strange environment of this city is dense with story, and it draws me into thinking of life as stories," Cole's unnamed narrator says halfway through the novel, as he becomes more deeply immersed in the disorder, the striving, the corruption and the inventiveness of Lagos and its people.

African sports officials have banned Lee Evans, an American gold medalist and Fulbright scholar, from coaching for four years after he allegedly gave performance-enhancing drugs to a young athlete. The penalty was announced Tuesday by the Athletics Federation of Nigeria , which also issued a lifetime ban for the young woman's coach, Abass Rauf. Officials became aware of the situation after the athlete - a minor who was not named - failed a urine test. Evans acknowledged supplying the girl with supplements, amino acid and a sport drink while working as a consultant in Lagos in early 2013. He said he did not think anything he gave her contained banned substances.

Re "Love It or Hate It, Nigeria's Lagos Is Never Dull," Dec. 25: Among all the cities in Africa, Lagos is the most vibrant in which to live and work. With the corruption and looting of the treasury by state officials in Lagos and at the federal level in Nigeria, Lagos and its inhabitants still dominate economic and social activities in West Africa. For your writer to point out the ills without adequately pointing out the trendy and urban life in Lagos does injustice to a well-researched piece.

Every Day Is for the Thief Teju Cole Random House: 176 pp., $23 -- Imagine a patient, observant and precise writer like the late W.G. Sebald reborn as a Nigerian exile, returning to and then wandering about that country's teeming and chaotic capital, Lagos. That, in broad strokes, is the voice of the narrator of Teju Cole's fine novel, "Every Day Is for the Thief. " "The air in the strange environment of this city is dense with story, and it draws me into thinking of life as stories," Cole's unnamed narrator says halfway through the novel, as he becomes more deeply immersed in the disorder, the striving, the corruption and the inventiveness of Lagos and its people.

Rescue workers searching the swamps outside Lagos found the submerged wreckage of a Nigerian jetliner on Friday, 24 hours after it disappeared on a domestic flight. All 141 people on board were believed dead. "From the information I have . . . the plane just plunged into the lagoon," Aviation Minister Ita Udoh Umeh told reporters. A helicopter search located the Boeing 727 in a swamp at the village of Imota, about 40 miles southeast of Lagos--the intended destination of the flight Thursday.

Thousands of angry and dejected illegal immigrants milled around this border post Saturday, 24 hours after the expiration of the Nigerian military government's deadline for them to leave the country. It appeared that less than one-fourth of Nigeria's estimated 700,000 illegal aliens had left by Friday, and tens of thousands waited at posts like this one, 60 miles west of the capital of Lagos and on the border with Benin.

In an effort to stop bandits from robbing arriving airliners, security agents have been ordered to shoot on sight anyone getting past security guards and onto the runways of Nigeria's airports. Nura Iman, a commander in Nigeria's air force, said security patrols will also be intensified at all airport terminal buildings, the runway and tarmac.

Nigeria announced that 700,000 aliens illegally living in the country must get approval by May 10 to remain or get out. African diplomats quoted in Lagos, the capital, said the move appears to be a veiled expulsion of thousands of people who flocked to Nigeria to escape the ravages of drought elsewhere. Two years ago, Nigeria expelled at least a million aliens, most from Ghana, who it said were a burden on an ailing economy suffering from a drop in world oil prices.

Recovery teams gathered human body parts in plastic bags and prepared to excavate a smoldering crater left by a Nigerian passenger plane that crashed Saturday, killing all 117 people aboard. Investigators say the Boeing 737 nose-dived into a marsh north of Lagos and that most of the fuselage and corpses were buried at the impact site. The voice and flight data recorders had not been recovered. Relatives picked over the wreckage for evidence of their loved ones.

The protagonist of Okey Ndibe's unforgettable new novel, "Foreign Gods Inc.," is a failed immigrant. Ike (pronounced EE-kay ) is a New York City cab driver who brings in lots of cash but can't hold on to it for very long. His mother back home in Nigeria lives with the shame of having an American son who doesn't send her any money. An article in New York magazine offers Ike hope. He reads about an art gallery in lower Manhattan that specializes in statues of foreign deities, with the most impressive specimens commanding six-figure prices.

By the time Nelson Mandela was released from prison in 1990, the path to ending South Africa's political crisis through the abolition of apartheid was known, even if it would not be easy or straight. Solving the country's economic crisis was another story. It still is. When I first visited the country a few months after Mandela's release, the white overclass was just beginning to come to grips with the scale of the challenge. A Johannesburg economic firm had released a paper warning that South Africa's self-image as a big economy preparing to take its place on the world stage with Great Britain and Germany was a dangerous delusion--better to think of itself in terms of a second-tier economy like Belgium, they wrote. The idea came as a shock, and the implications were stunning.

Imagine a well-appointed table on a stone balcony overlooking Italy's storied Lake Como. Red wine, white roses, Rande Gerber and Cindy Crawford, perhaps a drop-in from Brad and Angelina — it's a possible scenario for Oscar-winner George Clooney, who will celebrate his 51st birthday Sunday and has a home there. Those Angelenos not invited to Italy can still enjoy a meal themed for the date, however, at Santa Monica's Locanda del Lago, which specializes in Italian cuisine. For the second year in a row (the 50th birthday was a big deal)

Unrest continued to spread across Nigeria on Tuesday amid new sectarian violence and a nationwide strike over fuel prices and government corruption in the oil-rich country. Police said one person was killed when a mosque and Islamic school were attacked in Benin City, in the south of the country. Ten people were reportedly arrested in the attack, the latest religion-fueled violence in a country divided between a predominantly Muslim north and a largely Christian south. In recent weeks, the radical Muslim sect known as Boko Haram, which seeks the implementation of sharia , or Islamic law, has attacked churches and other civilian outposts.

You can fly from LAX to Lagos, the onetime capital of Nigeria, for $910 round trip, including all taxes and fees, on KLM. The special fare is subject to availability; you must stay over a Saturday night. The fare is available for travel from Jan. 1 to March 29, 2012. Info: KLM , (800) 225-2525. Source: Airfarewatchdog.com

Reporting from Lagos, Nigeria — The white house on Gbemisola Street has a circular grave with a granite pyramid instead of a headstone and no name. It isn't needed. Everyone here knows Fela Anikulapo Kuti, Nigeria's revered protest musician arrested by Nigeria's military rulers some 200 times for his defiant lyrics, jailed and beaten on countless occasions. He's been dead 14 years, but Nigerians still go misty-eyed at Fela's name. He's loved not just for his music but because he was one of the few brave enough to attack the country's loathed military rulers.

Unrest continued to spread across Nigeria on Tuesday amid new sectarian violence and a nationwide strike over fuel prices and government corruption in the oil-rich country. Police said one person was killed when a mosque and Islamic school were attacked in Benin City, in the south of the country. Ten people were reportedly arrested in the attack, the latest religion-fueled violence in a country divided between a predominantly Muslim north and a largely Christian south. In recent weeks, the radical Muslim sect known as Boko Haram, which seeks the implementation of sharia , or Islamic law, has attacked churches and other civilian outposts.

Like many of Nigeria's middle class, Tunji Lawal-Solarin, an oil economist, was solidly addicted to the good life of low-priced imports. For the past decade, hundreds of thousands of office workers, professors and businessmen here could afford new French cars every year or two, champagne, an occasional weekend jaunt to Europe, Japanese color TVs and video recorders. Enough was usually left over from their modest paychecks to send a couple of children to school abroad.

A small town house with sweeping views in the center of a gently curving complex designed by architect Allyn E. Morris has come on the market. Built in 1973, the three-story, 44-unit Lago Vista encompasses two buildings that arc roughly 120 degrees around a hillside overlooking Echo Park's lake. The units have balconies with views of Silver Lake, the San Gabriel Mountains and downtown Los Angeles. Although not as celebrated as some of his fellow Modernists, Morris -- who died last year -- left a rich legacy of innovation by delving into the design theories of Modernist maverick Rudolph Schindler, according to architect Alan Hess, author of numerous books on architecture.

Away from the noise and hustle and stink, the shriek of energy, the never-ending buzz that is Lagos, a man reclines on a gravestone, serenely reading a book. His name is Immortal, and he sells life insurance. He says he is waiting for an angel. "I just come here to relax," says Immortal Emenike, 40, from his unexpected haven in Trinity Cemetery in Olodi Apapa neighborhood. "I like the serenity, the fresh air. It's very hard to find in Lagos."